# Fintech Hardware, Espionage Risks, and Robotics Deployment

**Podcast:** TechCrunch Daily Crunch
**Published:** 2026-06-05

## Transcript

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I'm Imran Cheek and Friday's Daily Crunch starts right now.
Digital wallet app Cash App launched a new gadget on Thursday seemingly inspired by the social media trend that involves paying for items in the real world with a tap of a homemade magic wand, which hides a tap and pay credit card.
Well, now there's a real wand you can buy to take part.
The company's $25 wand is part of its new NFC-powered tag hardware lineup, which Cash App plans to expand to include more form factors in the coming months.
The company said that its tag Tags are linked to the Cash App card and would work at outlets compatible with Visa's tap-to-pay platform.
Tags are activated by linking the wand hardware to the app, of course, and there's no minimum balance needed for the tag to work.
Cash App's new wand comes with a keychain ring, of course, that lets you easily attach it to a bag or clip it to your clothes.
Me personally, I'm going to hang it off of that little loop that comes with my carpenter jeans.
Be on the lookout, folks.
Spies working for Chinese intelligence are using job search and recruitment websites, including all of our favorite LinkedIn, to lure Western workers into sharing sensitive information, according to a joint advisory by the FBI, the UK security service MI5, and the governments of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
The advisory says Chinese spies pose as online recruiters and human resources firms who represent fake companies purportedly located outside of China and target people with the aim of obtaining non-public information that might benefit Beijing.
The advisory comes as governments continue to issue warnings about Chinese espionage, even as the US and the UK have tried to improve relations with Beijing.
Now, while Chinese spies often rely on hacking to steal info, the advisory underscores how spies also attempt to cultivate sources through public websites and communities.
Rosie the Robot?
Here we come.
You see, Hello Robot released the fourth iteration of its home assistance robot, Stretch, last month.
And you might Stretch to call it a humanoid robot.
While Stretch boasts a vaguely human torso and sensor-studded head, its telescoping arm has a pair of pinchers, and it rides around on a heavy, omnidirectional wheeled base.
When Stretch's batteries run down, lights around its, well, what you and I would call eyes, glow.
It looks angry, an engineer at the company has joked.
I'm not sure the company should be heading down the Terminator vibe route, but okay.
Hello Robot, founded in 2017 by CEO Aaron Edsinger, a former director of robotics at Google, and CTO Charlie Kemp, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is not building a foundation model or promising to take over every job a human can do.
You see, Hello Robot developed Stretch to do something many other robots aren't doing, working in real homes with real people at a time when most are behind glass and laboratories.
This is vital, you see.
While the latest advances in artificial intelligence promise more capabilities for robots, there is a dearth of useful training data.
And while simulation is improving, investors, well, they're increasingly focused on deployment.
And folks, that's your Daily Crunch.
Today's stories were reported by Tim Fernholz, Ivan Mehta, and more awesome TechCrunch journalists.
We'll see you here tomorrow.
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And until then, find us at TechCrunch.com.